Tinubu back in Lagos after 30 days in Europe as Sowore’s AAC sues over his absence

Updated 10:03 WAT, 1 Oct 2026: Tinubu’s Independence Day broadcast made no reference to his 30 days abroad or the handover dispute.

Updated 22:30 WAT, 29 Sep 2026: Tinubu landed in Lagos at about 6.20pm on Tuesday. This story has been updated throughout.

Updated 16:06 WAT, 29 Sep 2026: Tinubu has left Paris and is expected in Lagos this evening, the Presidency said. We will update this story when he lands.

The Tinubu vacation is over. President Bola Tinubu landed at the presidential wing of Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, at about 6.20pm on Tuesday aboard the Nigerian Air Force One jet, TheCable and Legit.ng reported, 30 days after he left Abuja. Journalists at the airport were not allowed to cover his arrival, Legit.ng said.

His return does not end the row. On Monday, Omoyele Sowore’s African Action Congress (AAC) went to the Federal High Court, Abuja, saying the president broke the constitution by not handing power to Vice-President Kashim Shettima. That moves a question many Nigerians have asked for weeks into a courtroom: who was legally in charge while he was away?

What is the AAC asking the court to do?

The suit, numbered FHC/ABJ/CS/2353/2026, was filed by the party’s national legal adviser, Inibehe Effiong, according to TheCable and the Guardian. Sowore, the AAC’s 2027 presidential candidate, was at the court when it was filed.

Tinubu is joined as a defendant by Attorney-General Lateef Fagbemi, Senate President Godswill Akpabio, Speaker Tajudeen Abbas and the National Assembly itself.

The party wants the court to declare that Tinubu acted unconstitutionally by travelling without sending a written declaration to the leaders of both chambers. It also says lawmakers failed in their own duty once 21 days had passed. Finally, it is seeking a perpetual injunction stopping Tinubu, or any future president, from going on vacation without following the handover rules, Legit.ng reported. No hearing date has been fixed.

What does Section 145 of the constitution say?

Section 145(1) of the 1999 Constitution says a president going on vacation must send a written declaration to the Senate President and the Speaker. Until he writes again to say he is back, the vice-president performs his functions as acting president.

Section 145(2) covers the gap. If no letter arrives within 21 days, the National Assembly must pass a resolution, by a simple majority in each chamber, mandating the vice-president to act.

The rule has history. In 2010, lawmakers invoked a so-called doctrine of necessity to empower Goodluck Jonathan during Umaru Yar’Adua’s long medical absence. Muhammadu Buhari, by contrast, sent formal letters before his trips in 2016 and 2017, making Yemi Osinbajo acting president, Daily Trust recalled last week.

The same newspaper reported on 23 September that its efforts to confirm from the National Assembly whether Tinubu had sent such a letter drew no answer.

Why has Tinubu been away for so long?

Tinubu left Abuja on 30 August for what was announced as a three-week working vacation, first in London and then in France. The Presidency has since pushed back his return twice, Nairametrics reported.

In Paris he met President Emmanuel Macron and the French businessman Vincent Bolloré, according to the Guardian and Blueprint. Shettima led Nigeria’s delegation to the UN General Assembly in New York in his place.

His spokesman Bayo Onanuga has brushed off the criticism. “In this digital age, he does not need to be physically present in Abuja to do the work for which he was elected in 2023,” Onanuga wrote on X on Sunday.

Why the Tinubu vacation matters for 2027

The absence has become campaign ammunition. Last week, a cross-party bloc in the House of Representatives, the Save Democracy Group, urged the National Assembly leadership to reconvene plenary, saying the 21-day window expired on 20 September.

Atiku Abubakar’s camp has joined in. Kola Ologbondiyan, media director of the African Democratic Congress presidential campaign council, said Nigeria needs a president who “is physically available to respond to the demands of governance”, the Guardian reported.

For voters, the fight is less about a letter than about accountability: whether the constitution’s safeguards bite when the man at the top is out of the country.

What happens next

Tinubu used his Independence Day broadcast on Thursday morning to defend his economic reforms. “We have passed through our own Red Sea,” he said. The speech made no mention of his month in Europe, his health or the handover dispute, according to the full texts published by TheCable and Channels TV.

He is staying in Lagos for the anniversary and is due to attend the premiere of a film honouring MKO Abiola at the Wole Soyinka National Theatre, Iganmu, later on Thursday, Channels TV and Arise News reported, before returning to Abuja. Follow every Independence week development on our Nigeria at 66 live page.

In court, the defendants must now be served before a judge fixes a date for hearing. No date had been reported by Thursday morning.

Tinubu is home in time for the anniversary; whether he left by the book is now a question for a judge.